Ace Combat 7,1: Thin Strand of Hope
by MaverickSawyer
Summary: In the aftermath of the Lighthouse War, the continent of Usea has been left in chaos... again. It's up to Trigger and his new friends to help pick up the pieces. NOTE: No character tags for AC7 yet. Will update them when they arrive. Also, title should be 7.1, but apparently I can't have a period in the title.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

 _31 October, 2019_

 _2219 EET (Eastern Erusia Time)_

As soon as she regained conciousness, Princess Rosa Cosette D'Elise knew she was in the infirmary of the _Admiral_ _Anderson_.

It wasn't the fact that there was a blood monitor clip on her right index finger, or the fact that the bed she was resting on was tipped slightly up at the head. Nor was it the quiet background noise of the monitoring equipment. Even the fact that she had something wrapped around her left wrist and right ankle didn't provide the pivotal clue. All of them could have been from an ambulance, or aboard some other evacuation vehicle, or even in a regular hospital.

It was the smell.

Cosette had visited many hospitals over the last few years as part of her duties as the Princess of Erusia, and she had always noticed the distinctly astringent smell of the industrial antiseptic used on every surface. The same smell now filled her nose, along with hints of sea spray... and the relatively new, but increasingly familiar, scent of aviation lubricants and fuels that she had come to associate with the military. She could only think of one possible location that could produce that particular mix of smells: the grounded Osean supercarrier. She slowly started to open her eyes, only to wince at the bright light in the room, making a pained hiss as she shut her eyes again.

"Ah, you're awake. How do you feel?"

 _Must be a doctor or a nurse_. Cosette realized that her mouth was dried out. "Thirsty."

"Okay. Hang on, I'm going to shift the ox meter to your left hand. Let me know if it hurts, okay?"

Cosette nodded. _They must be a nurse._ The pressure from the clip on her right index finger was removed, and it returned moments later on her left hand.

"How's that? Is it okay?"

Another nod.

"Okay, I'll go get some water for you. Anything else?"

"Bright."

"Oh, right, the lights. One second." There was a soft click, and the light coming through Cosette's eyelids dropped significantly. She opened her eyes again, and found the light levels to be much less painful. "Thanks."

"No problem, miss. I'll be back with some water in a moment." The owner of the voice, now revealed to be, as she had expected, a nurse, left through a hatch, further confirming her guess as to her location.

Cosette began to take in her surroundings in more detail. There were several other beds in the room, but all were currently empty. She wasn't sure she should be thankful for there not being that many injured refugees... or concerned that there may be more dead than injured.

Turning to her own condition, she noticed a brace wrapped around her wrist and forearm, and though she couldn't see it due to the blanket draped over her, she could tell another brace was wrapped around her right ankle, likely due to whatever was causing the ache she now felt from the area. Other aches now began to manifest themselves... her left wrist, which was an obvious one, but also her left shoulder, and a significant part of her left side. Other, more focused pains were on her face... _possibly cuts? But from what? I had a pressure suit helmet on_... Clearly she had survived the jump down from the space elevator, but all she could remember was making the jump, and shortly thereafter, there had been a flash of something, then... nothing. She couldn't remember anything until moments ago when she woke up. _What happened_?

Her musings were interrupted by the arrival of a new person, possibly a doctor. He had a cup of water in his hand. "Sorry about the delay. I wanted to check in on you now that you're awake." He handed her the water, which she gratefully took a long drink from. Sure, her hand was shaking so badly that a fair portion of it missed her mouth entirely and ran down her face and neck... but it felt so good. After a few moments, she handed the water cup back, and the doctor put it on a nearby stand. "Better?"

"Yes. Thank you. My mouth was so dried out..."

"Yeah, pure oxygen can do that. Glad to see you're awake, though. How do you feel?"

"Lots of aches, like... really bad bruises? All up and down my left side. If that makes sense?"

"It does. Can you recall anything from the jump?"

"Not really. There was a flash of something right before I blacked out, but... That's it."

"Huh. Well, that does clarify some of what happened. All we had was some eye witness accounts from the ground, but that is of limited utility when they are trying to watch something several miles above."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, do you remember the two new drones turning up?"

Cosette's face paled. "What new... Wait. Two, you said?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Oh, God. We were too late. _I_ was too late." She tried to get out of the bed, only for the doctor to stop her.

"Ma'am, please. You're in no shape to go anywhere right now. We do know that you landed badly, which, now that you've said you were already unconcious at that point, makes things a lot clearer. And it does raise the possibility of cranial trauma, or a concussion."

Cosette sighed and settled back onto the bed. "What happened after the drones arrived?"

"Well, as best we can tell, you fell down into the path of the drones as they attacked a fighter. There was an explosion of some sort from the attack, and from what you told me, you must have been in the blast radius, which would explain the bruising along your left side, and possibly even explain the smashed faceplate of the pressure suit you were wearing. All told, you're lucky to be alive, let alone in one piece."

She ran her fingers across several of the cuts on her face. _So, that's where those came from._.. "My shoulder?"

"Ah, yes. It was dislocated. One of the people who rescued you managed to properly reset it shortly after you landed, but there's some residual inflammation. According to one of the pilots, it's possibly due to you entering a high-speed spin at altitude, or it could have been from the blast, or a combination of the two." He shrugged. "You'll need to keep it in a sling for a few days, and be gentle with it for a few weeks, but it will heal up fine." He pointed to her ankle. "You rolled your ankle on landing, and we're not sure where you sprained your wrist, but again, they'll heal up just fine in a few weeks. Some off-the-shelf ibuprofen will help with both the pain and the inflammation for the first few days." He stood up. "Is there anything else I can do for you at the moment?"

"Not really, no."

"Get some rest, ma'am." The doctor stood and headed for the hatch.

"Wait. Do you know when they intend to go after the drones?"

"I'm... not sure I understand."

"The new drones... they need to be destroyed, or they will continue the war."

"I.. honestly don't know when. I'll look into it, though."

"Could you make sure that someone wakes me up before they go? I'd like to see the pilots off."

"I'm not terribly excited about letting you out of the infirmary so soon... but yes, I'll make sure of it."

"Thank you." As the doctor left, he closed the hatch to close off the noise from the ship beyond, and Cosette lay back down on the bed. Before she drifted off, she had a brief recollection of a glowing red electronic eye staring at her. From where, she wasn't sure... but it was unsettling. Thankfully, sleep came swiftly, and all thoughts of the rogue drones were soon banished by a dreamless sleep.

-.-.-

Sorry about the issues. I had some issues with uploading the text, as there was some formatting glitches that the site did NOT like.


	2. Chapter 1: Signal Lock

**Chapter 1: Signal Lock**

 _1 November, 2019_

 _0854 EET (Eastern Erusia Time)_

 _O.S.S. Admiral Anderson_

Avril Mead held her hand up to the sky, blocking the early morning sun as she leaned against the island of the _Anderson_ , watching for any sign of the returning fighters that has sortied not even two hours earlier in a desperate, last-ditch attempt to, if not end, then certainly pause the war. She'd been in the carrier's Combat Information Center the whole time, sitting literally on the edge of her seat as Trigger took on the drones around (and into) the space elevator. To the surprise of pretty much no one, he had succeeded in downing both of the damnable things. Now, there was a swiftly growing party in the mess hall of the carrier, waiting for the surviving pilots to return.

The hatch beside her opened, and several personnel came out onto the deck, preparing to recover the fighters. Trailing behind them, helped along by Georg, was the Princess. Her left arm was in a sling, and she had a flight deck helmet in her right hand, clearly intent on watching the recovery process. She looked over at Avril, and a brief flash of guilt was visible on her face before she schooled it to a more neutral expression.

Avril smiled. "Shouldn't you be back in the sick bay, Your Royal Highness?"

"Probably. But I wanted to watch the pilots come back. Thank them, too, for their effort to end the threat of those drones."

Avril nodded slowly and looked out at the sky. "Well, they should be back soon."

As if summoned by her words, four Erusian Su-30s appeared out of the haze, flying in tight formation as they approached the carrier. Then, one by one, they peeled off and prepared for landing.

Cosette tried to put the helmet on by herself with only her right hand, only to fail miserably. Georg smiled, and Avril shook her head. "Dumbass. Here, let me." Cosette sighed and handed the helmet over, and Avril quickly slipped it onto her head. "There."

"What?"

"Exactly." She gave her a thumbs up and slipped her own hearing protection on as the first Flanker closed in on the carrier deck, and Georg ducked back into the island. There was a shrill scream as the plane throttled up right before landing, and Avril watched the fighter snag the an arresting cable on the deck. _2-wire. Bit low, but acceptable_. The flight deck crew quickly unhooked the wire and guided the Flanker to a spot near an elevator, where it shut down and was promptly prepared to be lowered down to the hangar deck below. Even as the first plane was still taxiing, the second fighter came in and trapped, snagging the 3-wire with practised ease.

Avril resumed looking for the remaining fighters, and was soon greeted by a second four-ship formation. This one was mixed, though, with two F-35Cs and a pair of F-15Cs. _Okay, the Eagles are going to be done for after today... they're simply not designed for this kind of landing._ As she watched, the Lightings broke first, and the Eagles continued to fly downrange for a rather extended time, giving the deck crew vital time to deal with whatever problems occured. _Okay, that's 8 of the 9 survivors... now where is he?_

-.-.-

Trigger orbited high over the carrier, waiting for the last of the survivors to trap before landing himself. After all, they had been seriously outclassed by the drones during the engagement, and Trigger was thankful that there were as many survivors as there were. _We went in with 24, and only 9 made it back. 15 aircraft traded for the two drones._ He shook his head in dismay. _Any other mission, that would have been considered a slaughter. Instead, people will treat it as a great victory._ Trigger blinked and looked down to the carrier below as Jaeger trapped without any visible issues. Still, he cringed at the thought of the pounding that the aircraft would have taken from two carrier landings. _Good thing I'm in a sturdier bird... even though it's not Osean._ He patted the glareshield of the Su-57 he had claimed as his own after the battle over Farbanti to replace his badly damaged Eagle. _Gotta hand it to Suhkoi... they know how to build a tough plane._

The radio crackled to life as Huxian trapped aboard, again without any serious issues. " _Trigger, deck is clear... ish. It'll be ready for you by the time you line up, though._ "

"Copy that, Long Caster. Making my approach now." Putting actions to words, he swung around and descended, smoothly arriving on the glideslope right where he wanted to be, with the "meatball" centered.

" _Three quarters of mile, Trigger. Call the ball_."

"Roger, Trigger has the ball." E _asy, now. Don't get cocky and splatter yourself on the deck_. He waited until just before he hit the deck before slamming the throttles to the first set of stops... and was rewarded by being unceremoniously slammed against his harness. Quickly chopping throttle, he coughed. "Damn, I don't think I'm ever going to get used to that."

-.-.-

Avril watched as Trigger caught the 3-wire with a grace that none of the other pilots could ever dream of matching. T _ypical Trigger. Waits until everyone else is safe before he lands. I'm going to have to ask him why he keeps doing that..._

Trigger taxiied over to a spot next to the island before shutting down and opening his canopy. He was greeted with a chorus of cheers from the assembled deck crew, as well as some of the other pilots. For some reason, he seemed surprised by the reaction of the crowd, halting his progress on removing his ejection seat connections and looking at the growing crowd. Someone finally arrived with a ladder and hooked it over the sill of the cockpit, and Trigger snapped out of his shocked state. Another deck hand began encouraging people to back away while he climbed down, then scrambled up the ladder to help Trigger with the last few connections.

 _It's odd, how he reacts to these things... He's never interested in being the hero. Count would be eating this up, but Trigger... he just brushes it off._ Avril cocked her her head to the side as she watched Trigger work his way through the crowd of admirers and headed towards the island... _No. Towards me and Cosette. What is he doing?_

-.-.-

Trigger made his way through the crowd, responding just enough to the celebrating crew to come across as polite. His priority, however, was to make it to the two people _he_ wanted to meet... and to thank: the Scrap Queen and the Princess. Two women who, if it weren't for their efforts over the last 24 hours, would have resulted in certain defeat for the coalition that had formed to end the war... and quite possibly would have ended in his own death at the hands of one of those new drones. To him, _they_ were the real heroes of the day, and he needed to let them know.

As he cleared the crowd, he saw the Princess for the first time. She was young, possibly the same age as his oldest sister, who was (hopefully) in college in Oured right now. She was also clearly injured, something that surprised him. Last he had heard, she had pulled the world's ultimate BASE jump right as he had retreated from the airspace around the space elevator, protecting Count from those infernal, never-sufficiently-damned drones. He was sure there was one heck of a story to be told, but now wasn't the time for that... He approached her, stood at attention and snapped a salute, as befitted greeting a head of state. "Captain Cody Deveraux."

She stood there, stunned, for several seconds, before finally nodding, which Trigger took as his cue to return to parade rest. "A pleasure to meet you, Captain. What can I do for you?"

"For me? Nothing. I just wanted to thank you for disabling the power feed to the Arsenal Bird yesterday. Without that, the day would have ended in disaster. You saved dozens of lives in that fight alone, and likely saved countless additional lives that would have been lost had the war continued."

Scrap Queen took the opportunity to chime in. "Yeah, and then she jumped off the tower and almost got killed by the drones as they shot Count."

Trigger supressed a laugh at the look that Cosette gave Avril. "Nevertheless, I, and all the other surviving pilots, are in your debt, ma'am, even if they don't realize it, or are unwilling to admit it." He grinned. "Especially Count. He'd never admit it."

The Princess, having had an opportunity to process Trigger's praise, finally responded. "I... Thank you for the compliment, Captain, but... You are the real hero here. Without you, those drones would have sent their data to factories across Erusia."

"I was just doing my job, ma'am. You, however, could have simply let someone else take the risk.. and the leap. Yet you didn't." A slight smile appeared. "On that note... Scrap Queen, I can't thank you enough for the work you did on my plane last night and this morning. I am absolutely certain I would have died up there today if you hadn't worked your magic touch on my plane again."

Avril stood there, jaw hanging open for a moment, completely surprised. "I... um..."

Avril was spared further embarrassment as the door to the island opened up and one of the crew of the _Anderson_ came out onto the flight deck. "Hey, food's on in the galley! Come on!" He retreated into the island, followed by a sizeable portion of the crowd drawn by the promise of food and celebration.

Trigger seemed uninterested by the prospect, however, and Cosette noticed. "What's wrong, Captain? Surely you deserve some food and relaxtion."

"True, but the job's not done yet. I'm going to the CIC to listen in on the rescue helicopters. I'll be down in a bit."

Huxian nodded in understanding and clapped Trigger on the shoulder. "I'll make sure they save something for you. Any preference?"

"Not really. Maybe I'll be hungry enough to decide after the rescue birds get back."

-.-.-

Trigger arrived in the CIC and made a beeline for Long Caster. "How's the SAR going?"

Long Caster leaned back in his chair and stretched. "Smoothly as could be expected. Hugin and Munin did a pretty thorough job on their targets, though. Aside from Count, we've only picked up two survivors from our group. Found a few other survivors from the Erusian conservative forces who allied with us, though." He sat back forward, grabbing a nearby plate with a piece of cake on it and used a fork to carve off a piece.

Trigger sat down next to Long Caster and put on one of the headsets, listening in to the radio chatter from the rescue helicopters as they went about their work. "Any other transmissions from _Pilgrim_ _1_?"

"Actually, yes. We got a very focused transmission from them a few minutes ago, mostly to check if our comms were cross compatible. Took a bit of work from our end, but we've got a solid connection to them. It's unencrypted, though, so..." Long Caster shrugged.

"Do we have a global map handy? I have a bit of a crazy idea, but I'm not entirely sure if we can swing it due to distances..."

"What, use the _Pilgrim_ as a communications relay?" Long Caster grinned. "Already checked and it's doable, if only just. We just need to get the crew onboard with it, and then we might just be able to call home."

Trigger sat back in his chair, thinking. "Well, I think that the folks in the Six-Sided Puzzle Palace are going to be in for one heck of a shock if we can give them a call."

"Oh?"

"Just think of everything that's gone down since Farbanti. If we hadn't lived through it, how much of it would you believe?"

"Hell, _I_ still can't believe some of the stuff we did." Long Caster shook his head. "There's no way the brass will believe what happened."

"Well, there may be only one way to find out." Trigger stopped and listened to the radio as a rescue helicopter called out its approach to the carrier with survivors aboard. "Okay, good, sounds like Count's aboard the chopper. I'm going to go greet him and then turn him loose on the party. See if you can get that uplink to Oured lined up?" He headed towards the hatch out of the CIC.

"Will do. I'll send a runner when we're ready."

"We? You're the ranking officer, _Major_."

"Oh hell no. I'm just a lowly AWACS officer. You're the real leader here, Trigger. Now go, before Count makes a fool of himself."

Trigger grinned and opened the hatch to reveal Avril, who seemed to have been about to open the hatch herself. "Oh. Headed in?"

"Looking for you, actually. The rescue bird's a few minutes out, and Sir Dumbass is aboard."

"So I heard. I was about to go greet him and the other survivors. Want to come along?"

"Nah, there's some food at the party calling my name."

"Alright. Enjoy yourself. You've earned it." Trigger turned and started down the corridor.

"Trigger... wait." Avril bit her lower lip as Trigger turned around. "Earlier... you said that my work on your plane saved your life."

Trigger stopped and turned back towards Avril. "It did. I've never had a plane so finely tuned and balanced before. And it wasn't just today... Ever since you started fixing my plane in Zapland in that hellhole of a base, you've saved my ass repeatedly." Trigger gave Avril a gentle smile. "I cannot thank you enough for your work."

"I was just doing what they asked me to in Zapland." Avril looked at the floor as she felt her face flush. "I mean, yeah, last night was different, but... that was because we all knew that you were the only real chance we had of shooting down those drones, and, well... You needed every last trick up your sleeve you could get."

"No, what you did in Zapland was far above and beyond what was strictly neccessary. You didn't have to go to such lengths to fix my plane after combat, but you did." Trigger stopped and looked over his shoulder as the muffled sound of a helicopter echoed down the corridor.

Grateful for the escape from the increasingly awkward situation, Avril gestured in the general direction of the flight deck. "Right, you'd better go. See you at the party?"

"Yeah, I'll be down in a bit." Trigger gave Avril a quick wink and hurried down the corridor.

-.-.-

Avril looked around the mess hall, searching for Cosette. Unsurprisingly, the princess was tucked into a corner in ther back of the room, trying to be as unobtrusive as possible. _To be honest, I don't blame her. She probably thinks most of the people in the room want to kill her right now._ Avril eyed the contents of the buffet that had been laid out and opted for a bowl of fruit and a bottle of water, then headed for the princess. "Hey, Cosette. Mind if I join you?"

"N-no. Not at all."

"Cool." Avril sat down with a groan. "Ugh. I'm going to sleep like the dead tonight. Been running pretty much non-stop since yesterday morning."

Cosette looked at Avril in surprise. "How are you even _awake_ right now? The longest I've ever gone without sleep was... maybe 24 hours, and I felt like garbage afterwards."

"Caffeine and adrenalin are a hell of a stimulant, kid." Avril leaned her head against the bulkhead for a moment before taking a drink from her water bottle. "Though I'm probably gonna sleep for a good chunk of a day after this."

"I'd imagine so." Cosette laughed. "Why not go to bed now?"

"Nah, too amped up to sleep right now. Plus, there's a whole laundry list of things to check and get other mechanics started on before I feel comfortable racking out for 16 hours or so."

There was a cheer from the other side of the room that quickly gave way to applause.

Avril again put her head against the bulkhead and closed her eyes. "Lemme guess, Trigger just walked in?"

Cosette eased herself to her feet and looked across the room. "Yes. his wingman is here, too. Count, I think you called him?"

"Yep. Or as I like to call him, Sir Dumbass."

Cosette giggled at the name. "An apt nickname, from what little I've seen of him."

Avril nodded slowly and opened her eyes, observing Count and Trigger. Trigger hung back, near the wall, and let Count take the brunt of the attention. T _ypical Trigger. If you didn't know him better, you'd think he was a loner who didn't care for being around others._ Then Trigger looked her way, and they locked eyes from across the compartment, causing the pilot to smile slightly and nod once before he headed over to grab some food.

-.-.-

 _1005 EET_

It took nearly an hour for Long Caster to line everything up, but finally everything was ready, and Trigger stood at parade rest in front of the webcam and projector. The projector flickered once, and was replaced by the image of a seal he honestly hadn't been expecting: The Office of the President of the Osean Federation. As quickly as he registered the seal, it vanished and was replaced by a live video feed from what was apparently the Situation Room beneath the Green House. Sitting in the center of the image was the President, joined by the Vice President, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Secretary of Defense, and the Speaker of the House. Behind them were a smattering of aides, both military and civilian. Trigger saluted and looked just above the webcam. "Mr. President, Captain Cody Deveraux reporting for debrief, sir."

" _At ease, Captain. And this isn't a full debrief, as this isn't a fully secured line, so please keep that iun mind when answering our questions._ "

"Understood, sir". Trigger returned to parade rest and nodded once.

" _So, first off, I'm assuming you're ranking officer among whatever survivors you're working with?_ "

"Among the Osean contingent, yes. There's some... complications on the subject of chain of command for Erusian forces we've been working alongside."

The Speaker of the House decided to cut into the conversation. " _Working_ alongside _the Erusians? Have you gone_ mad _? They're the_ enemy _!_ " A quick glare from the President quelled any further outbursts for the moment, and the Speaker sat back down in his chair.

"The situation in Erusia has degraded severely since the assault on Farbanti and the collapse of the LEO satellite comms networks. I can provider an executive summary, if you'd like."

There was a shared glance between the Chairman of the JCS and the President, before the Chariman nodded. " _Please do, Captain._ "

"Shortly after we gained the upper hand in Farbanti, the King was apparently assassinated by an operative for a group of Erusian officers who wished to escalate the war further. This, combined with the destruction of communications assets both in orbit and on the ground, resulted in a total breakdown in Erusian command and control, and the splintering of their forces into a number of competing factions. They've largely consolidated into two main blocs, the Radicals who curretnly hold Farbanti and the core of Erusian territory, and the Conservatives, who are currently attempting to regroup near Selatapura. Several Erusian client states have broken away in the chaos, and the nations that were overrun during the Erusian advance earlier this year are now reasserting control over their territories." Trigger took a moment to gather his thoughts before continuing. "The Conservative bloc has worked with surviving Osean units in the area surrounding Gunter Bay and Tyler Island to eliminate the second Arsenal Bird, which was still under Radical control, and we have secured the Space Elevator. The Elevator's power generating and distribution capabilities are currently disabled until we can ensure their security. We also worked together, just a few hours ago in fact, to eliminate a new, experimental Erusian Radical asset that would have irrevocably turned the tide of the war in their favor. Casualties were high between the Arsenal Bird and the new drones, but we're still fighting and just need logistical support and replacment personnel to return to full combat strength."

There was an extended period of silence from the Oured end of the video link as the leaders there processed Trigger's news delivery. Finally the President spoke again. " _That's... quite the chain of developments, Captain, and it's honestly the first solid intel we've gotten from the front in several weeks. We would have used courier aircraft, but... we're scrambling to find non-GPS navigational equipment and personnel with the skills to use them. However, we have a few aircraft ready to make the trip as early as the day after tomorrow. We'll be sending you a new commanding officer to lead the LRSSG, as well as a few support staff and a team that will be looking at what it will take to get the_ Anderson _back in the fight._ "

"That would be much appreciated, sir. Any overarching orders while we wait for secure communications?"

The Chairman responded first. " _Continue to gather what Osean forces you can, Captain. Beyond that, I think you have a much better idea what's going on than we can ever hope of getting right now, so use your discretion._ "

The President chimed in as well. " _Also, see if you can find out who's in charge of this Conservative bloc. If you've been able to work together on two major missions, then I think we can work with them to find a mutually beneficial end to this war._ "

"Understood, sirs. We'll be waiting for the reinforcements in two days time." Trigger saluted, which was answered by the President.

" _Dismissed, Captain._ "

Then, the link cut out abruptly, and Trigger relaxed and rubbed his face. "Ughhhh. How badly did I fuck us over, guys?"

Seated well out of view of the webcam was Long Caster and Jaeger, who both chuckled. Long Caster was the first to respond. "See, this is why I let you take the heat."

"Thanks, Dave."

Long Caster playfully clutched at his chest. "You wound me, Trigger. Using my street name? Mortally wounded, I am."

Jaeger chuckled at the AWACS officer's antics before turning to Trigger. "I think you did just fine, Cody. Though your decision to _not_ mention the Princess..."

"Until we get further orders, I'm treating her as a head of state and will protect her as such until we get a trustworthy Erusian team to take over. And given our lack of secure comms right now, I decided to err to the side of caution. But... she's just a kid, Jaeger. She's probably not even old enough to drink yet." Trigger settled into a nearby chair with a groan.

"Not by Osean laws, no. But she's 18, almost 19, so by Erusian law, she can drink." Jaeger grinned. "I see what you mean, though. She's been through hell, and she's not ready to take on the weight of leadership that the President is likely going to thrust on her."

"Fuck. She's lost her whole family, been shot down, almost got killed how many times? She's _earned_ the right to be shaken up right now. I just... she reminds me of one of my little sisters, Sam. Same age." He looked up to the older pilot. "She should be preparing for her first set of midterms at a college, not having to worry about leading a faction through a civil war _and_ possibly negotiating a treaty with Osea."

"Yeah, it's fucked up, Cody. This whole war has been. All we can do now it try to pick up the pieces and fix everything as best we can." Jaeger sat down beside Trigger. "And that includes people, too. We've all seen, done, and been on the receiving end of things that no one should have to go through. We've all been broken to some extent by the war, some more than others. The Princess, though... she may have been broken, but her actions yesterday and today tell me she's already starting to put herself back together, and she's going to be stronger than she was before. She just needs some support while she get to that point."

"Yeah. I just hope our new CO will see things that way."

Jaeger smiled. "Oh, I think he will."

"You do?"

"Call it a hunch."

"Care to put some money on it?"

"Twenty bucks?"

Trigger paused for a moment before grinning. "I'm in. Long Caster, want some of this action?"

"Nah, I'm good. Just gonna keep my head down for now."

Jaeger laughed. "Smart man."


End file.
